Forging Terminus Est

Transentient · 03 Jul 2008, 03:36 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: transentient at gmail.com (Transentient)
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 23:36:09 -0400
Subject: (urth) Forging Terminus Est
In-Reply-To: <747944.7978.qm at web83718.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
References: <747944.7978.qm at web83718.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <54DAA314-D391-445B-AA55-5840882D2DFC at gmail.com>

>     So I?ve changed my mind about the improbability of Wolfe?s  
> putting a mercury channel in Terminus Est.    I think a craftsman  
> could have forged the sword without resorting to unknown technologies.

I never really considered that there was an actual channel of mercury  
running down the core of the blade. I always assumed this was just how  
Severian described some bit of lost tech.

You don't need to do use anything like a channel of liquid metal in a  
sword to make it a good tool for cutting heads. All you need is a good  
edge. The rest is up to the skill of the practitioner; I am sure the  
executioner's guild trained Severian very well in how to cut so that  
the blade's balance is forward or backward.

(Surely I'm not the only one on this list who has practiced a Japanese  
sword art like Iaido or batto?)

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